International Dwarfism Awareness Day 2024: Horton Hears a Who Lesson story from my student teaching

                             

[Image Description: The bright orange hardcover of the children's book titled "HORTON HEARS A WHO!" written by Dr. Seuss is pictured with the title displayed in center-aligned diagonal white text at the top and the author's name in center-aligned white text in the bottom right corner. Horton is displayed as a cartoon white elephant with large ears, small eyes, and a long trunk. The book is laying on a wooden light brown desk.]

    During January to April of 2024, I was assigned to be a student teacher in a first grade classroom of twenty-two students in a Catholic school in Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On March 1, 2024, I read Horton Hears a Who to my students in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday coming up. I told my mentor teacher that I performed in Seussical the Musical in high school, and she thought that that was so cool. She asked me if I had any pictures that I could show our students. So, I printed pictures from the play ahead of time to show the children. I printed a picture of me playing one of the Whos of Whoville, my then best friend named Becky who is a little person who played another one of the Whos, and a third performer playing one of the Whos altogether on stage, a picture of my brother named Richie who played Horton, and a picture of Richie's plush Horton.

    Usually, I anticipate that children may ask innocent curious questions about differences, but I did not anticipate that they would do that about Becky for some reason. They zeroed in on Becky's height right away and they were saying and asking all sorts of questions, such as, "Wow! She is really short!", "Is that a little girl?", "How old is she?", "Do you have the same birthday?", and "Did she get any taller?". While these questions may come off as rude sometimes, my students were innocently asking because they wanted to learn because they had never seen a little person before. They were also calling out because they were so excited to learn. I have learned that since children tend to have a way of latching right onto differences, responses to their questions should be approached as positive, fun, and instructional learning opportunities. So, I said, "These are all really good questions, and I love talking about differences! Everyone needs to raise quiet hands and listen though." I went on to tell them, "My friend's name was Becky and she is short because that is what we call a little person. Becky was in high school just like me at the same time. Becky is 26 now and her birthday is (MM/DD). Her grandfather lived behind my house when Becky and I were in middle school and high school. Becky is still the same size because that is as tall that she will ever get. She is able to do amazing things just like everyone else and everyone comes in different sizes. Some people are smaller and taller than others and everyone has differences and that is okay." I viewed what I said as a positive way to explain little people and very fitting for this story because as Horton says, "A person's a person no matter how small."

    All of the children were so happy to learn about Becky's size and when I was finished reading the book, all of the students clapped. Some of the students said, "We are clapping for you, your friend, and your brother!", which was so sweet🐘🌼✨️

                          

[Image Description: Another performer, Becky, and I (right to left) are standing on a stage with a bright purple background with the bottom half as green to represent grass. Becky is wearing a short-sleeved light yellow dress with an orange strap around it, white sneakers, and two red hair ribbon barrettes in her brown hair that she is wearing down. The other performer is wearing a long-sleeved white sweater with a light yellow scarf, a patterned skirt in orange and brown tones, and holding the strap of a small pink purse in both hands. I am wearing bright orange pants, a tie-dyed bright orange and white short sleeved shirt, purple glasses with clear lenses, and brown shoes with my long, curly, dark brown hair down.]

Did you enjoy and find this post helpful? If you want to see more content like this and my other content about teaching and advocating for the disability community, please follow me on Instagram and like my Facebook page if you have not already by clicking on the hyperlinks below:

Instagram: @firstformerbuddyclubpresident

Facebook: First Former Buddy Club President

Give feedback! Questions? Compliments? Suggestions? Let me know in the comments section below and/or email me at ehoffbuddyclub@gmail.com !

If you repost to your own page or story, please tag me in the caption and the post and keep my logo visible. Thank you💕